The rate of UK unemployment rose to 4.4% in the three months to April, up from 4.3% in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics has said this morning
Meanwhile average regular earnings growth remained unchanged at 6% in the three months to April and lifted 2.9% after taking Consumer Prices Index inflation into account
The figures appear to show that demand in the job market is clearly softening with vacancies down, employment down, whilst inactivity rate and unemployment rate moved higher.
Commenting on the figures Rebecca Florisson, Principal Analyst, the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, a leading think tank for improving working lives in the UK:
“Today’s labour market data shows there will be no time for complacency for the next Government as the UK has a smaller workforce that is poorer and sicker than in 2019.
“Annual nominal wage growth was 6%, with the record National Living Wage increase of 9.8% improving the pay of 3.3 million low paid workers.There are signs that the wage growth recovery has peaked.
“Despite real wages rising by 2.3% on the year, the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine has made this the first Parliament since 1955 where living standards have declined. The reality is that most people are feeling poorer than when they last voted in the last General Election nearly five years ago.
“The next Government will face the challenge of a smaller workforce than at the start of the Parliament, with the employment rate 1.9% percentage points lower than in December 2019-February 2020. Today, more than a fifth of working-age adults (22.3%) in the UK are not actively looking for work and unemployment has risen to 4.4% which is the highest level for three years.
“There are now a record 2.83 million people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness – 702,000 higher than in January-March 2020. The UK continues to be an international outlier with participation rates well below pre-Covid levels and this trend shows no sign of abating.
